Inside the Arizona Diamondbacks Offseason Strategy with Jack Sommers

Inside the Arizona Diamondbacks Offseason Strategy with Jack Sommers

[Music] Here we go. Our offseason to-do list starts now. Alphabetical order. A is for Arizona Diamondbacks. Jack Summers joins us right now. And you can hear him on Snakes Territory. Also Dbacks on SI B writer for Sports Illustrated. Jack, great to see you again. And first off, can you just lay out a little preview of what your offseason to-do list is for the Diamondbacks, and then we’ll go one by one. Sure. Probably like all 30 teams in Major League Baseball, they need to add pitching, but they severely need to add pitching. They need two starting pitchers uh to add to their rotation. Zack Gallen, Mr. Kelly, free agents of course, and Corbin Burns is out until at least the All-Star break. Uh so they need to bring on at least two starters. um they may go aggressively try to trade for a higher frontline starter. I don’t think they have the dollars to sign a frontline starter and then possibly backfill with a more bargain basement fifth starter. Um at the same time they need to add a closer andor a couple of high leverage relievers. Uh Mike Hazen in the past uh him and his front office have kind of gravitated towards this uh closer by committee uh situation which doesn’t really work for them. Um and I pressed him a little bit on it. Are you going to try to get a closer this year? And he said probably um a little reluctantly but I know that Tory Lavell prefers to have a closer as opposed to doing the committee route. And with eight years of history of having one of the weakest bullpens in the league with a few exceptions here and there, um this is a a spot that they have to fill. Uh Justin Martinez and AJ Puck are both out until the second half of the season. Puck might come back a little bit sooner. He had the uh brace procedure as opposed to Tommy John. So, you know, you can’t really count on those guys. They got they need a closer. They bought they brought in a bunch of young guys uh at the trade deadline. some pretty good relievers to back fill. Uh but they need a closer and then they need a right-handed bat. Um it could be a first baseman. They need a platoon mate for Pav Smith who’s a left-handed hitter who’s likely going to get most of the reps at first base, but then they need a short side platoon guy. Um they also really could use a Randall Gritic type person uh to fill that similar role uh because Lordis Guriel Jr. is also out the first half of the season uh at least due to an ACL tear. Um so they need a right-handed outfield badge. So on top of that beyond that top three bullet points, they actually need a backup catcher as well. James McCann came in and did a great job for them. um and actually by the end of the season was catching more than Gabriel Marino because of concerns over pitch calling and how well Macan is at that and Marino is kind of struggling with it. So u the Dbacks certainly need a backup catcher that I think they’d like to bring Macan back, but when I spoke to him at the end of the season, he was very non-committal about returning. Okay, Jack, where do where do we start? We’ll start with the first one. They need pitchers. Well, Zack Allen’s still there. Why can’t they just resign Zack Allen? They don’t like him that much. I mean, that seems like an obvious one to me, but they I mean, who would be the other starting pitcher? Are they going to go fishing in the deep waters? Are they going to try to, you know, lure hopefully a base a bargain guy? Because, you know, for a long time, this was supposed to be their strength with FA and Kelly and Gallon and Eduardo Rodriguez, you know. So, who do they go get? And why would they just let Gallon walk? Why not try to sign him? Well, with Gallon, I think to sign Scott Boris client to sign him to a long-term deal is going to take them out of their comfort zone financially. Ownership has said that they’re cutting payroll this year. And with $50 million of dead money on the roster due to all the injuries, they probably only have somewhere in the 30 to $40 million uh range to spend. They’re certainly going to give Zack Allen the qualifying offer and he’s certain to reject it. Um, there’s a pretty good chance that they may try to bring Mel Kelly back. Merryill has indicated a very strong desire to stay in Arizona. He lives here. He loves it here. He’s an Arizona guy. Um, I think he would like nothing better than to be able to come back, but he’s not going to come back for peanuts. If they lowball him, he’ll go where he’s going to get paid, of course. Um, one thing that Jesse Freeman and I floated, uh, you know, Hunter Green was put out there on a article by MLB.com as a potential trade candidate for the Reds to bol used to bolster their offense. And if you really want to go blockbuster, they could perhaps trade, say, Catel Marte for Hunter Green. Green’s got four years of control of $61 million. Um he’s had his injury history, but this past year it was groin injuries, not arm or elbow. Um and you know, when he’s on the field, he’s an ace level starter. Um and he’s young with four years of control. So that’s one possibility. I think that the Diamondbacks are very much going to have to uh pursue the trade route to fill most of their holes. If they were going to go after say um McKenzie Gore from the Nationals, in that case you’re probably looking at more of a prospects deal, but they’re going to have to peel off two or three guys out of their top five prospects just to get him away from the Nationals. I think it’s going to have to come more via trade and they’re going to have to be aggressive with trades as opposed to a lot of free agent signing. All right, payroll roll back. So, does that mean that they were deaked by the fact that they made it to the World Series in 20 I don’t even remember now, 22 or 23? 23. And so, does that mean that they were deaked by that? Because I I remember when they signed Jordan Montgomery, hey, we saw an influx of season ticket holders for the 24 season, so we had a little extra money to spend. Was it poor planning or was it, hey, you know what? we got two years to try to get this thing done and then after that we got to cut payroll back. I think it’s more the latter what you just said. Um they got a windfall from that 23 World Series. Um they invested a lot in pitching of course they tried the Jordan Montgomery thing. Um and the Corbin Burns thing kind of fell out of the sky. He contacted them wanted to you know go to Arizona and stay there because he lives there. And so Ken Kendrick was willing to increase the payroll beyond his comfort zone to make that happen. Um that was actually his impetus. Mike Hazen was, you know, traesing around in the mountains of New Zealand with his kids uh hiking when that opportunity came up and Ken Kendrick was the driver of the Corbin Burns deal. Um in the past, Ken’s been known to kind of sandbag a little bit about what he’s willing to spend and end up spending over what they’ve said. Uh but both he and Derek Hall have said that they’re not going to be at quite the same levels as they were the last two years. The last two years, back-to-back years, they set payroll uh records for their franchise. Okay. You mentioned you mentioned corner bats. They had two corner bats. They traded them away and now Suarez and Naylor. So, are they going to look for maybe bring one of them back if they can? Or you mentioned trades. Can they do they have enough prospects to go trade for quarterback, starting pitcher, closer? I mean, do they have this many prospects if they’re not going to go out in free agency to trade for all these people and in a tough division? I mean, let’s be honest with the Giants looking to go for it. The Dodgers back-to-back world champs, the Padres’s are still going to be decent. Do they have enough to to compete? I think the combination they do, and Mike Hazin will never back off trying to compete. I think you know that about his reputation. Um he’s you know rebuild is a dirty word. I did say they have 30 to4 $40 million space in this year’s payroll. So they’re going to be able to use some of that money. It’s going to have to be a combination of trades and free agency. And you know look if they end up pwning up big time for a pitcher then they’re going to have to fill almost everything else by trade or vice versa. if they’re able to land a a pretty good pitcher like a Hunter Green um via trade, then they can use free agency dollars to fill some of the other gaps. One name that they’ve been tied to um is Paul Goldmid as a possible return to be shortside platoon. Uh you know, basically he still hits left-handed pitching. Doesn’t hit right-handed pitching unfortunately anymore, but he could be a good mentor to Paver Smith and pick up, you know, 200 250 plate appearances. And I don’t think it’s going to cost more than six, seven, 10 million tops to bring Goldie back uh for one year. So that’s that’s one type of possibility. As far as Suarez and Naylor, um a big emphasis for the Diamondbacks is improved defense. The defense was a lot better over the last two months of the year. Um Gino, I love that man. I mean, he is just one of the most genuine people in the world, and you you couldn’t be more happy than to see him have success. However, his defense has really taken a big step back and I just don’t see the Diamondbacks going down that road. Similar with Naylor, he’s a really good hitter, but his defensive first base overall rates out quite poorly, well below average. I don’t think the team is willing to go back down that road. They struggled on defense mightily in the first four months of the season at those two positions. Catel Marte, you mentioned it a little bit here. You know, the Hunter Green bolstered their offense. He’s a perennial top three MVP candidate. There’s a little bit of scuttlebutt about, you know, what was going on with the team and is it, you know, is he there every day after the All-Star break, all that stuff. Is that something that the team could really push that trade and get maybe like two or three big league ready pieces because he’s locked up I think until 20 2030 is that new extension which teams for that kind of bat that you know it’s an impact bat immediately into somebody’s lineup which means the Diamondbacks will be losing that impact bat. Yeah, they control him for the next five years through his age 36 season. Um, however, you know, second baseman, middle 30s, 35, 36, you know, that’s when his contract gets more expensive, too. Um, it’s kind of now or never. You know, he’s got 10 and five rights coming up, I think, in May or June of next year based on service time. Um, so, you know, if they want to trade him, um, and try to use that level of talent to fill in all of these holes, it’s now or never. That’s a yes. That’s a yes, then. That is a that’s a yes, Jack. You just said it because they don’t want to get to a 105. So, yes. Okay. So, we can look for Catel Marte. And yesterday, we heard Terrick Scooble’s name mentioned as possibly being traded. So, be a very busy off season on Snakes territory because we’ll see who what they get. But, man, he could be worth so much as a trade. Yeah. One thing I’ll say is, you know, um you Cassie used the uh phrase major league ready. Um they want frontline major league talent back if they trade Catel. like they’re not going to trade him for high-end prospects that maybe just had a a whiff of Major League Baseball experience this past year, you know, a rookie or whatever. Um, if they move Kau Marte, they’re getting frontline pitching or they don’t do it. What do you think is the percentage chance that actually happens? A trade. As you mentioned, you can’t do it at I mean, let’s say the Diamondbacks don’t have a good first half. You can’t do it at the trade deadline. You would have to do it sooner than that. It gets tricky during the season. So, if they’re going to do this, it really does have to happen over these few months. And I guess you can add this to your answer. How pissed off would Diamondbacks fans be? He seems like he’s one of the more popular players for a fan base with one guy on a team, right? Like the Diamondbacks are not loaded. I mean, there are some other names that they like. Corbin Carroll, but Catel Marte a lot of personality. I mean, he’s been what, a top three, top five MVP guy multiple times. had big memories and moments for them in 2023, leading that team to an, you know, a really great run in 2023. So, how beloved is he and how pissed off would fans be if the return is not going to help them be better in 2026, which I think is hard to do. Yeah. Well, that’s why I’m kind of, you know, grasping at straws maybe at the Hunter Green concept. Um, which I I actually really like. I mean, I think that that’s actually a perfect move for them if they’re going to move him. Uh, you know, cuz that guy, he’s a stud. I mean, when he’s healthy and on the mound, he is an absolute stud. He can front anybody’s rotation when healthy. So, you know, that’s the level of talent that they’ll need to get to make them competitive. They do have a lot of uh pretty good young middle infield prospects coming up. Um, and there’s a couple of triple AAA that could maybe, you know, like a Tommy Troy, of course, Jordan Lawler, uh, that who finished up the year much better. Uh, they they could come in and step in and fill the breach at second base if they were able to get, you know, a large upgrade. I mean, don’t forget the three remaining starters that they have, Ryan Nelson, Brandon F, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Two of those guys just are coming off five plus ERA seasons. The only one of those three that they have holdovers that performed well was Ryan Nelson. So, you know, he had a 3390 RA. So, I mean, they they need a guy. They need a real guy out there in front of that rotation. Um, you know, look, when Corbin Burns comes back, you guys know, you know, Tommy John returnees, they don’t just step right into it and return to their studelves. It takes some time. Think San Die, right? You know, it’s it’s not like they’re going to those guys are coming back from injury in the second half of the season going to step right in. They’re going to take a half a year or a year to get back to what they were if they do. They got to be stuff was like, wait, what? Cuz was it two years ago when he was the Gold Glove winner or last? It was two years ago, right? And now we’re talking there’s been concerns raised about his pitch calling and game calling. Um it was something that they danced around quite a bit. Um, it started off where they were emphasizing how good McCann was at it. And then they started talking about, well, you know, it takes three to four years in a league before you’ve really got enough experience. Um, and then finally Tory Lavell kind of let out a little bit uh, verbally in public press conferences that yeah, there might be some issues there with Gabby’s game calling. And by the end of the season, if you look at, you know, I man caught twothirds of the game games over the last two weeks of the year, you know, when they were fighting to try to, you know, stay alive in that race. McCann was getting the bulk of the catching duties and Marino was a DH. Um, he is young. I mean, it is going to take some time. Um, and he’s going to be the starter, but he’s also been injuryprone, right? Uh, he’s never started 100 games behind the plate. Um, last year he had a little bad luck. He fractured a finger. I think he started 65, the year before that 83, the year before that 90s something. Um, he’s never even started 100 games yet. So, durability and pitch calling are two concerns. And so, they need a really strong backup catcher. Be great if they could bring Macan back, but my guess is McCa’s probably looking to go to a team that’s a little bit more of a shorefire contender. He may have questions or doubts about the Dback’s ability to contend in 2026.

Jack Sommers, co-host of Snakes Territory and Sports Illustrated beat writer, joins the show to break down the Arizona Diamondbacks’ offseason to-do list — from rebuilding the rotation to finding a new closer and replacing key bats. Jack explains why pitching depth, bullpen upgrades, and a right-handed power bat are top priorities, and whether a Ketel Marte trade could reshape Arizona’s roster heading into 2026.

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